


Curiosity

by Efs2520



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:21:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27292627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Efs2520/pseuds/Efs2520
Summary: She couldn't believe she had spoken to him like that when they first met. She couldn't understand why his deep voice and dark eyes suddenly had changed her life around. All she knew was all of the sudden Aaron Hotchner was there in her life, and no danger, kidnapping, torture, serial killers or even Rossi's gossip would keep her away from him. HotchXOC M for later chapters.
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter One:

This is going to be a love story, stuffed full with all of the typical love story cliches. Full of all the twists and turns, ups and downs, proclamations and secrets. The will they won’t they will be drawn out, tragedy and comedy will somehow go hand in hand and there will be times I’m sure you’ll be screaming common sense advice at me that I assure you, any other time I would have given out myself. This is your warning, your disclaimer as it were. 

Now time for some basic information. Boring but necessary. 

My name is Gwendolyn Thompson, Gwen for short. I prefer it short. I work at the FBI’s BAU. The Behavioral Analysis Unit for those of you who aren’t following closely with all things law enforcement. You might be sitting here thinking that I’m some amazing profiler here to save the day, taking down the bad guys with the power of my mind and dramatic lowering of glasses for effect. Thanks for the vote of confidence but unfortunately I’m not a member of the highest echelon. I am more a glorified assistant in my opinion. Lots of paperwork, lots of coffee runs, and lots of delivering messages to and fro the bigger people. But I have a desk in the bullpen area, and when there is a case that requires a large amount of people we do get to see some action. I can’t complain too much either, because ever since Chief Strauss had pulled my fellow agent Anderson up to be her chosen assistant I have become the main messenger and agent in the actual office. I was getting the most interaction with the top profiling team, and eating up every second of it. 

My life is work, with six of the seven days per week spent circulating the office and staring at folders stuffed with mutilation and corpses. It’s horrible and can give you nightmares, but I can’t see myself anywhere else. Since I was 22 and graduated the academy I’ve been here, trying to absorb as much as I could and feeling like in my own small part I’m helping put these monsters away. Unfortunately with that level of commitment it leaves virtually zero room for a personal life, which in all honesty is fine by me. I’m not what you call a social butterfly, and my idea of a A+ weekend is pizza and BBC shows on Netflix. 

Are you all still bearing with me? Good. The boring stuff is over. That short summary is just the baseline, the starting point for who I was. Now we can start with the real story, about how my quiet, minor player life got turned around by a deep voice and chocolate eyes. 

As promised we start off strong with cliches. It began with a shoulder bump, a coffee stain, and a bunch of spilled papers. 

******

“Goddammit…” I hissed under my breath as the contents of the six folders I had been carrying scattered across my feet and the floor while my chest screamed out in pain from the scalding coffee that was now spreading over my favorite blue blouse. I grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled it away from my body, deciding to try and stop the burning first before worrying about the reorganization headache I was going to have to face.That’s what I get for attempting to multitask walking around a corner and sipping my Starbucks while it was still hot. 

“Well that’s one kind of way to start off the morning.” I paused my cooling down procedure to glance at the direction of the remark. I had completely forgotten the cause of my predicament was the fact I had run into someone, and damn my luck I was staring down Agents Rossi and Hotchner. The former seemed to be the wisecracker, the latter was standing closer to me with his hands still up. Obviously he had been the road block, because of course it had to be the team leader. I hated my life.

“Agent Rossi, Agent Hotchner, I am so sorry. I didn’t see you.” Let the grovelling begin.

“Clearly.” Hotchner lowered his hands with his stoic tone and brushed off the front of his suit.

“Oh my god, I didn’t get any coffee on you did I?” Without thinking I reached out to make sure there were no stains, but he took a step back and shook his head. 

“I’m fine, you seemed to take the brunt of the spill.” He motioned to my being and I resisted all urges to cross my arms in front of me in an attempt to disappear. Instead I lowered myself to the floor and started collecting the papers scattered everywhere. Keeping my eyes to the floor I mumbled sorry about a million more times to their shoes, realizing how silly I must look but scared to death I had just angered the people that could cost me the dedication of the past eight years in the blink of an eye.

Two firm hands grabbed my arms and pulled me back up. Rossi was looking me over while brushing off my shoulders. “I see no need to apologize for an accident, do you Aaron?” He glanced down at Hotchner who had taken my place pulling together all the horrible photos and papers into their respective folders. His short brown hair shook from side to side and I released a breath I hadn’t known I was holding. I wasn’t going to be fired. They didn’t seem to be mad. Rossi looked back at me with a warm smile. “See no harm done.” He looked me over again.”Well, in our case at least. We need to fix you up a bit.” 

“Oh no, I’m fine.” I tried to wave him off and take the folders back from Hotchner as he finished, but Rossi was persistent and was steering me away from the hallway and back to the bullpen. I complied, but only because I didn’t want to draw more attention to the walking catastrophe I currently was. We marched up to where two more of the team members were sitting on their desks talking, and as we approached the eyebrows quickly raised in question. 

Agent Jareau smiled kindly at me while Agent Prentiss stared at Rossi incredulously. “Do we want to know?”

“Morning traffic accident. Poor Agent…” Rossi trailed off and looked at me, and I realized that it had suddenly hit him he actually hadn’t asked my name. I stuck my hand out to the two women.

“Thompson. I’m Agent Gwendolyn Thompson, though please just call me Gwen.” I shook their hands briefly before resuming my hiding pose. The questioning turned to sympathy.

“Ah yes, Hotch and I weren’t paying attention and bumped into her in the hallway. I was hoping Emily you wouldn’t be opposed to sharing a shirt from your go bag temporarily until we can get hers cleaned. I think you two are about the same size.” For the first time I made direct, intentional eye contact, intitially with Rossi and then with Prentiss. I hadn’t realized that while he was trying to brush things off my shoulders he was apparently taking exact measurements. Hearing of Rossi’s reputation was one thing but had to say even with that knowledge I was impressed. It must have shown on my face as soon the two women were laughing quietly. Even Hotch cracked a smile. Prentiss reached under her desk and pulled out a small suitcase, and from within a dramatic red blouse was removed. 

“You really don’t have to…” I tried again, and once again Rossi wouldn’t hear my protests as he thanked Prentiss and steered me toward the restrooms. I was starting to get the strong feeling a lot of this team were not used to not getting their way in things. Before I could fully grasp what was happening I was standing in a stall with the replacement blouse hanging on a hook. Rossi was waiting outside the door to the restroom but I could still hear him greeting passerbys. Sighing in defeat, I pulled off my blouse and grabbed some paper towels to dab off the remainder on my skin. When I was sure the coffee was gone I slipped into Prentiss’s blouse and exited to do a quick look over in the mirror. It was a bold color, much bolder than I was used to, but I didn’t have any other options. Double checking to make sure my brown hair was pinned back in place I collected myself and walked out. 

“Good as new!” Rossi smiled and patted me on the back, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he was checking to see if I was wearing a bra or not. “Now give me your blouse. I have a dry cleaner that can get out any stain in the world. I’ll have it cleaned and returned to you as soon as I can.” 

I opened my mouth again. “Agent Rossi, you really don’t have to…” 

“Gwen, if you keep trying to turn away common courtesy I’m going to keep piling it on.” He was trying to be serious but his eyes were clearly laughing at me. I rolled mine and handed him my folded blouse. 

“Thank you Agent Rossi.”

“You’re welcome, Agent Thompson.” He gave me a wink and a wave as he wandered over to the elevators. “Gotta remember the name so I remember who this belongs to.” I couldn’t help but smile at his antics. The man was good I had to admit. As the doors closed behind him I turned on my heel and was about to walk back to my desk when I realized I had completely forgotten the large calamity of papers I was supposed to be organizing. Back to the bullpen I went, but when I got back I saw no sign of Prentiss or Jaraeu nor my folders. A quick glance up showed Agent Hotchner was now in his office, which meant after almost spilling coffee all over him I now had to go ask him face to face where he had moved my mess to. 

Shit.

Gathering my little redeeming dignity I squared my shoulders and marched up the stairs. Knocking three times I pushed the already ajar door open slightly more and stuck my head in. 

“Sir?” God I sounded timid, that was annoying. I cleared my throat and tried to be better. “Agent Hotchner, may I come in?” Without looking up he motioned with his hand. I couldn’t help feeling like I was doing nothing but bothering him. Walking up to the front of his desk and waiting for him to finish looking at the papers in front of him I rocked back and forth on my heels. Curiosity got the better of me and I looked down to see what he was reading, only to realize it was one of the cases I had been putting together. “Those are mine!” I blurted while reaching out, only to freeze when he made eye contact. My hand retracted immediately but I didn’t find myself looking away as I politely added, “Sir.”

“You look better. Dave was right.” A smirk appeared as quickly as it disappeared on his face. “He usually is about that sort of thing.” His eyes drifted down to the papers before back up to me. “So you’re the agent that puts together all the case files before we choose our cases?”

“Yes sir,” I nodded politely but kept a steady gaze. I had been rattled earlier by the accident, but a good FBI agent should be collected. Hotchner thumbed through some more pages. 

“I organized what I could, I’m not sure whether I helped or hindered.” He kept looking through everything but after spending all night putting those together I could see a couple things were out of place. Tentatively I reached out again and placed my hand at the top of his desk. 

“May I?” He paused but then nodded, sliding them across the wooden surface. Plucking them up, I started to fix the mistakes and neaten the piles. “These were coming to a member of your team anyway, so I guess you saved me a trip.” I looked up to smile at him before continuing my work. 

“How long have you worked here Agent Thompson?” Without looking up I could tell Hotchner was leaning further back slightly. I took the liberty of sliding the completed files over to the now empty space while finishing up the others. 

“Just over eight years sir.” A particularly gruesome partial beheading made me flinch and I stuffed it down where I didn’t have to see it. 

“Are you enjoying it?”

That gave me pause as I met his eyes again. “Well...yeah? Why are you asking?” 

He leaned back further, collecting all the files except the one in my hand and knocked them all into a neat pile. “You don’t see many FBI agents who look like they are about to break down over spilled coffee. As well as leading my team, it’s my job to make sure people in this office are alright. You just didn’t seem to be.”

Unaware that I looked like a gaping fish I tried to comprehend the mini profile of myself I had just been given. “Sir…” I glanced to the side to give myself time to word this perfectly. “All due respect but you couldn’t be more wrong.” Nope, that was not the perfect polite response I wanted. Everyone knew all due respect basically meant kiss my ass. 

Hotchner’s one eyebrow raised slightly but other than that he didn’t move. “Please, let me know how I was incorrect.” 

I had been out of the fire, I had avoided catastrophe already that morning. All I had to do was leave the last file and save myself. “Well,” I smacked the edge of the file against the desk, a clearly calm and sane thing to do. “I was a little stressed because I had just collided and almost ruined the suit of the head profiler in the top team in the whole office. I was stressed because I was worried that he might take that badly and one word to the higher ups and suddenly I find my basic agent butt transferred somewhere else.” Yep, that was exactly what I had wanted to say. This couldn’t have been more in line with my plan. 

With some unknown confidence I looked back at him and saw both of his eyebrows were slightly raised. Great. Had a window been available I would have just jumped out then and there. Hotchner stood up completely now and walked over to me. For the first time that day I realized how tall he was to stand next to. Or maybe I was shrinking down after realizing the tone I had just offered. He stopped directly in front of me before both hands removed the last file from my grasp. “I see.” He flipped open the file for a quick look before closing it again and adding it to those on the desk. “Thank you for your honesty Agent Thompson. Enjoy the rest of your day.” 

Clearly dismissed I stood only another second before swallowing and moving toward the door, looking back briefly only to see that he had returned to his desk already. Without another word I turned on my heel and walked out. 

That was my first clear interaction with Aaron Hotchner.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

For the next couple days I enjoyed the usual pattern of my basic work schedule, as the team had gone out on a case over in Wisconsin. Apparently the partial beheadings hadn’t only caught my notice but theirs as well, but as the case was being solved by their combined genius I got to walk around in peace without having to avoid the eyeline of one Aaron Hotchner. I still couldn’t believe I had been so blunt with him in his office when in all honesty he had been asking a pretty standard question, but I was not looking for the follow up interview I was sure was on its way. I wouldn’t be able to lie, not under his intense scrutiny. There was a reason he was top dog I came to realize; and that was you’d have to be a complete psychopath not to break after an interrogation with him. 

As with any peace and quiet it had to come to an end. My first heads up was the news conference that played across one of the many TV screens that were broadcasting. The sheriff of the town was speaking to the people, telling them how they had, through combined effort with the BAU, caught the son-of-a-bitch (my words, not his, but we were all thinking it) and there could be peace in Madison once again. Since I didn’t see the team anywhere in the background I figured they must be at least on their way to the jet, which meant I had four hours tops left of tranquility. I was generous with the consumption of chamomile tea. 

By cup five I heard the click clack of heels who could only be one person. Penelope Garcia came rounding the corner into the break area of the office holding a mug in the shape of a waving cat. The woman was basically walking bubble gum, but I had to admit I kind of loved her individuality and cheerfulness. She was one of the few people I knew who made sure to say good morning to everyone she passed each day, and the times where I would hand her the usual files required of my job she would shoot me a warm smile and a kind word. Today was no different as she waved me down while I leaned against the counterspace.

“Long day Gwen?” Penelope grabbed another tea bag and popped her now filled mug into the microwave. 

“Almost done.” I nodded back and took a sip. “Just waiting for these last packets to print out but of course there’s about two hundred pages so I’ll be here til the end of time.” 

Penelope chuckled as the microwave continued to whirl. “Well at least there is good news. Did you see that we got the guy in Wisconsin?”

“Hmm?” Nonchalant was not an easy look for me. My own tea was bubbling in my stomach as my eyes kept flashing to the elevator doors. If I could just finish my last work I could escape before the team returned. “No I didn’t. That’s really good news though. I saw the pictures. Couldn’t get a good night’s sleep after that.” 

The microwave dinged and Penelope blew slowly over the top of the steaming drink. “I totally get that. Looking at my computer screens all day can leave my outlook on life kinda bleak from time to time.” I hadn’t really considered that, the fact that while I briefly had to look at horrendous photos, she was forced to stare them down for hours at a time. Made her personality even more remarkable. Without hesitation Penelope stuck her hand into her pocket and pulled out a pen with large amounts of purple feathers coming off the end. It was placed in my hand gently with a kind smile attached. 

“Do what I do and have something that makes you happy. I can spare this so keep it around if you are feeling down.” I couldn’t help but feel touched by her kindness, and grinned widely as I stuck it behind my ear.

“Thanks Penelope. I’ll use it every time I sign something important.”

“Oh I’m sure Strauss will love that.” We both laughed at the idea before the elevator chimed and I almost dove behind the table. Two agents unknown to me walked out and I righted myself before Garcia picked up on my jumpiness. I had lucked out as she had turned to get sugar when I twitched. 

“So.... the team must be on their way back then?” Might as well fish around. Better than mini heart attacks every two minutes. 

“Back to the area yeah, but they aren’t coming back in. Day’s almost over so Sir Hotch told us to all call it a day. I wouldn’t even still be here if it wasn’t for a couple new security levels I’m installing into my system.” Pulling out her cell phone Penelope clucked her tongue. “Actually it should almost be done now. Have a nice night Gwen!” Clicking heels took off down the hall with another wave and smile. The tension in my shoulders relaxed as I hummed my way back to the printer, waiting for the remaining seventy five pages.

*******

Thirty minutes later and I had all the folders put together, pages stapled, and pictures laminated. I stowed them all in my desk to be properly distributed the next day. Trying to decide what bath bomb I wanted to soak in tonight my mind was clearly on other things as I drifted over to the elevators, and smacked right into the chest of someone coming out. 

I don’t know how I knew, but I just knew Lady Luck was not being kind to me at all. Without looking up I took two steps back and stabilized my breath, staring at the black shoes that stood in front of me. 

“Agent Thompson.”

Yep, deep voice, slightly annoyed tone, speaking my name. Only one person that can be. With as much indifference as I could muster I rose my eyes up to see Agent Aaron Hotchner staring at me, looking tired and disheveled but still in the usual suit. That’s just great. 

The best thing to do in this instance was to keep my mouth shut before I reminded him why exactly he was probably annoyed with me before this moment. For once I listened to the logical side of my brain. With a quick nod of my head to the side I maneuvered around the man. “Sir.” I replied coolly before summoning the elevator. He didn’t move, and I was worried that my nervousness would start to show. My mind was already concocting all different scenarios on why he was just standing there, and when I risked looking over my shoulder at him his face gave nothing away. All I could tell was he seemed to be waiting for me to say something, but I was at a complete loss what it could be. As the doors finally opened I stepped inside and met his steady gaze fully again. 

“Goodnight sir.”

For a second I thought he was about to march into the elevator with me, but instead he remained steadfast and gave me a slow nod.

“Goodnight.” As the doors closed between us he added, “I’m not sure that pen is FBI approved.” Boom just like that he had the last word, and I was left standing there just now remembering the purple feathers behind my ear.

********

There weren’t enough bath bombs to relax me for the morning, and whatever Agent Hotchner had been waiting to lecture me with, but at least I smelled like apricot peach and my hair was poofy as I dragged myself back into the office. Readjusting my purple sweater, I had just placed my purse on my desk when I was greeted with someone I was not expecting.

“Gwen! Happy Wednesday to you.” Rossi came right up to me and clapped my shoulder before removing something from his back. “I have a surprise for you.” I took the package and removed the plastic. My blue blouse was in there with no hint of the coffee anywhere in the fabric. In fact it looked better than when I had bought it new.

“Wow, it’s so clean.” I ran my fingers over the fabric. “Thank you so much Agent Rossi.”

“Please drop the formality. Rossi is just fine.”

A sheepish smile crossed my face. “Thank you Rossi.” I reached down and opened the drawer of my desk, removing Prentiss’s blouse which I had cleaned and placed in a paper bag waiting for her return. “I have to return this and thank Prentiss again. Do you know if she’s here yet?”

“I saw her when I came in. She’s here somewhere.” The two of us started walking tangentially down the hall and I found the conversation with Rossi surprisingly easy. He mentioned he didn’t often get to meet people outside of the team so it was nice to get to know someone new. He asked how my past few days were, and I stated that I had spent Saturday making homemade Fettuccine Alfredo. Apparently that was some sort of trigger word for him. 

“I didn’t know you liked Italian food Gwen.”

I kept myself from pointing out up until a few days ago he didn’t even know my name. “My mom’s dad was full Italian. I had a lot of Sunday dinners over there and always wanted to be able to come close to recreating some of the recipes.”

“Fantastico!” It was hard not to catch the infectious energy currently coming from the older man. “Next time I have people over, you will have to come as well! I shall teach you how to make some from scratch properly!” 

“Ooo, what are we learning to make?” Penelope and Prentiss walked up to us as we approached Rossi’s desk, which I was unclear exactly how we had meandered to. I was still confused on how I was on Rossi’s guest list suddenly. 

“Italian food.” I handed the paper bag to Prentiss with a smile. “There’s your blouse hun, thank you so much again for saving my life that day.” Making sure to give an exaggerated look with a cheeky grin I laughed along with the three easily. 

“So when is this cooking lesson happening. I want in.” Prentiss looked from me to Rossi expectantly while Penelope agreed vehemently. I wasn’t going to point it out, but I noticed that two other members, Agent Morgan and Doctor Reid, had stopped their conversation a few desks over and were now watching with interest. Rossi took in all the faces suddenly giving him their full attention. He looked back at me but all I could do was shrug. He had placed himself in this situation. I was apparently just along for the ride.

“Tell you what, let’s aim for Saturday night. You can all bring a bottle of wine, or maybe some dessert. I’ll do some cooking and teach you my ways and we can make a whole night out of it. We deserve it after that last case.” For a moment all faces simultaneously tensed up before a couple nodded in agreement. I stayed still, not wanting to appear like I knew what they were talking about. The case must have had some harder moments for these guys not able to move on like they usually did. It wasn’t my place to act like I understood when all I saw were pictures that I could pretend were just someone with makeup or special effects. 

The moment passed as these moments tended to do, and the questioning began on what Rossi would be teaching and what wine would go well with it. My silence remained, because I didn’t want to ruin whatever luck had landed me here, somehow listening to this group around me. 

“Someone needs to make sure to invite Hotch.” Penelope spoke up and my head shot up to see that the reason this was mentioned was because the lead of the team was walking up the stairs to his office, with such a similar dark suit to the one he had yesterday I couldn’t tell if had actually gone home to change clothes. He paused outside his door and looked down at all of us, before quickly pointing two fingers down to our group and beckoning afterwards. Everyone stilled again.

“Who’s he need to talk to?” Doctor Reid had walked over, just in time to ask a question everyone seemed to be thinking. The pit of my stomach knew, after all I had been experiencing a brief morning of reprieve. Agent Hotchner’s eyes narrowed slightly before he repeated the beckoning movement. At this point everyone had spaced out enough that there was no doubt I was being summoned to my version of the ‘pit of despair’. 

“Oh, someone’s in trouble.” Agent Morgan suddenly teased behind me, and my muscles were so tense that I jumped six inches off the ground. “Woah woah, ok. Don’t worry I was just kidding!”

“Nice going Morgan,” Prentiss rolled her eyes then flashed a concerned look my way. “Don’t worry Gwen, he probably just has questions about something.”

Oh I was sure he did.

Morgan tried to make up for his earlier blunder. “Listen, you look like you’re about to pass out. Do you need a minute? I could tell him you needed to go get checked out.” 

Shaking my head I swallowed hard, even though my mouth was dry. I hated confrontation, and I was terrified that this was going to be a bad one. Plus there was the VERY strong possibility I would forget professionalism again and say something insanely stupid. Yet I knew it would only get potentially worse the longer I took. Aaron Hotchner did not seem to be a patient man when it was clear I had not been doing anything. With as much bravery as I could muster, I put a smile on my face and waved off the concerned looks of the team, assuring them I would be fine and I just had anxiety attacks all the time. Hiding the shaky legs I was suddenly experiencing, I walked myself up the stairs and into the office, mentally preparing for whatever I was about to face.

“Close the door,” Hotchner didn’t look at me, but as I turned to close the door I realized the blinds were drawn on his windows. I was doomed. Embracing my fate I turned back to see him now facing me directly. He motioned to a side table next to his couch.

“I bought you a coffee.” 

My mind halted, not prepared to zig for this zag. Drifting my eyes over to the table, I saw the paper cup sitting there inviting me to grab it. 

“Y-you...what?” Yep, my brain was now just shut down. The man had bested me in one sentence. He was truly a master. Hotchner’s eyebrows raised slightly, but there was no annoyance there. He just kept looking between me and the coffee like it was the most obvious thing in the world; which truth be told; he couldn’t have stated it more plainly.

“I bought you a coffee.”

“Why?” 

It was out of my mouth before I could stop it, but in all the scenarios I had foreseen as I waited for this meeting, NONE of them started with free Starbucks. Hotchner put his file down on the desk and sighed deeply, eyes still finding mine. 

“Do you ask questions every time someone does something nice for you?” Slight head tilt as he continued. “I felt bad that I made you spill your coffee the other day, so I thought it would be the decent thing to buy you another one.” 

It was clear I was still looking at him with suspicion, after all buying me coffee didn’t require dramatic finger summons and me coming up to the office. Still, free coffee was free coffee. I slowly walked over to where it sat and picked it up, the steam still coming out of the little slot in the lid. One sip in and my eyes widened, realizing I was drinking my regular order.

“How in the world did you know what I ordered?” It was a vanilla latte with raspberry syrup in it. Not exactly a common drink. Hotchner smirked just slightly. 

“That’s another question. And you still haven’t answered me if you always do that.”

Another sip. “Well….thank you. You didn’t have to, but I do appreciate it.” 

He moved over to his chair and sat down in it. “And the answer to my question?”

My fingers traced the circle of the lid. “You still haven’t answered mine on how you knew what I usually drank.”

“Your cup was on the ground when it spilled. I picked it up and saw the order on the side. It’s not that hard to remember.” I could feel him looking at me, and knew I looked slightly mad circling my finger around the lid, but to hell with it. It was somehow making me feel better.

“I don’t always do it, no. It was just a surprise.”

“Why are you scared of me, Agent Thompson?”

My finger froze as my gaze rose up to look at him. There was no anger in his face, in fact it could almost be described as passive. “I’m not scared of you sir.”

Not even a second passed before he spoke back. “You keep fidgeting and avoiding eye contact. You are clearly uncomfortable here, and I would like to know if there is something I’ve done to earn this?”

“Well sir,” in trying to prove I wasn’t scared I met his eyes and cracked a smile. “I don’t think anyone is exactly stress free when they are called into the boss’s office.” Another sip, mixed with a deep breath through the nose to try and remain calm. 

“True.” Agent Hotchner’s face didn’t move, but he crossed his arms across his chest. “Would you care to enlighten me on why you thought then I would fire you for a simple accident? I do believe that was the point of your statements the other day.” 

Hot liquid scalded my throat as I coughed it down. Of course he would wait til I let my guard down slightly before bringing up the other day. Stupid coffee was like the last day long walk you did before you took your dog to be put down. 

“Ah yes…” I paused, trying to regain my voice as my throat cooled down. “About that. I am sorry sir, I spoke out of turn and forgot my place. It won’t happen again.” Nights of thinking it through had me deciding to go with the oldie but goodie route...extreme groveling. Just had to make it through the next conversation. 

Hotchner moved his arms again, and this time his eyes seemed to focus more directly on me. “You’re doing it again. I don’t want your apology. I want to know what made you so worried I was going to do such an extreme act?”

Bold Gwen was suddenly knocking in the back of my skull, demanding I let her in. After several seconds of me looking like a mannequin frozen against the wall I decided to see if she actually had a coherent sentence. “Well sir, you might be slightly unaware that you are a mildly intimidating person.” Ah there we go. That’s not that bad an answer. It also wasn’t the end of the answer, as bold Gwen took full control and charged right through. “Actually we both know that’s not true. We have studied some of your interrogations, and have just seen even more. You know exactly how intimidating you can be. So you can’t be surprised some of us who don’t know you are actually intimidated when you don’t turn that personality trait off?” 

What WAS it with this guy? I was normally so good about holding my tongue and being polite, I had practically made a career out of it. Yet here I was mentally banging my head against a wall again because for some reason I decided to open my mouth for more than two seconds around Aaron Effin Hotchner. Who by the way, the man had yet to move more than two inches, but still had me pinned under his gaze like bacteria under a microscope. Bold Gwen tapped again, asking for one more thought and I simply thought screw it. Might as well go big or go home.

Or go big AND go home in my most likely scenarios.

“Plus you don’t smile. It’s somewhat terrifying how serious you always are.”

That got his attention, as his mouth became a tight line. I waved my hand right at him. “Proving my point right there.”

“I smile.”

“You smirk, there’s a difference. Actually can be equally terrifying depending on the situation. I would assume a smirking serial killer would turn people’s blood to ice.”

“Did you just compare me to a serial killer?” 

“Not directly, but take it as you want to.” Another sip, at this point using my cup as the only momentary barrier between the eye contact. “A real smile has teeth and crinkles in the eyes. Think Santa Claus.” 

“Did it ever occur to you, Agent Thompson, that maybe I’m just focused at work?” He was so serious, and for some reason the more serious he was getting the better I was feeling. Nothing was going as planned but I was just throwing myself to the chaos and embracing it. I waved a finger at him, which his eyes flickered to.

“Not an excuse. Penelope is focused. Rossi is focused. Morgan is focused. Yet they all smile constantly.”

Hotchner’s eyes moved over to the blinded windows, outside of which his team was mingling with each other and working. Pride swelled in my chest when I realized I had him. He couldn’t argue my point. The gaze returned to me and his chin raised ever so slightly. “So what would you say I should do then? I, as I hope I have made clear, do want to appear so intimidating that agents are terrified of angering me, but I can also not convincingly relax enough to pass your very high standards of what constitutes a real smile.” 

I felt like I had just been mildly chastised but I wasn’t a hundred percent sure so I let it go. “You can’t relax enough at work. I guess I can understand that.” My shoulders rose and dropped quickly. “Rossi is having a get together to teach cooking on Saturday. He invited me and everyone else in your team. Be there and maybe you can prove me wrong. I’m mildly curious on what an Agent Hotchner smile looks like.” The team leader looked thoughtful as I spoke, before leaning back in his chair again.

“I’ll have to find a sitter.”

“I’m sure there’s one available out there.” I took a long, drawn out drink, finishing the coffee and feeling like I had the world’s biggest balls or was about to be thrown out on my ass. Wasn’t sure, and honestly, the slight power I felt was worth it. “Was that all you wanted today sir?” He watched me for a couple more seconds before nodding. I shot him a cheeky grin before tossing the empty cup in his trash can. 

“Thanks for the coffee.”


End file.
